Khashoggi's killing report deadline is today.

2/8/19
Friday marks a deadline for President Donald Trump to submit a report to Congress to determine who was responsible for the brutal killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi last October. A bipartisan group of senators, led by Bob Corker, Bob Menendez, Lindsey Graham, and Patrick Leahy, asked Trump in an October 10 letter to formally identify the people behind Khashoggi's disappearance — as it was determined at the time — within 120 days, and impose sanctions on them. Friday February 8 marks the end of those 120 days. Congressional aides have been given no indication that the White House would meet the deadline, Reuters reported. Khashoggi died at the hands of more than a dozen Saudi agents at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Transcript of an audio recording from his death reportedly describes him gasping for air and saying "I can't breathe." Senators from across party lines, and reportedly the CIA, have directly blamed Crown Prince Mohammed for Khashoggi's killing.

A preliminary UN report on Thursday called Khashoggi "the victim of a brutal and premeditated killing, planned and perpetrated by officials of the State of Saudi Arabia."Saudi prosecutors have long sought to distance the death from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, despite evidence pointing to his culpability. Baroness Helena Kennedy, who was part of the UN team investigating Khashoggi's death, told the BBC's "Today" radio program on Friday that Khashoggi's death "has all the appearances of being of a highly orchestrated and well-planned assassination of someone who is an opponent and a critic of Saudi Arabia. Saudi prosecutors, meanwhile, have shifted their narrative multiple times. In November they charged 11 suspects over Khashoggi's killing, saying that they had orders to abduct the journalist but ultimately killed him instead. Riyadh also claimed that Khashoggi's body was dismembered and given to an unnamed local collaborator — an account Turkey doubts is true.

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Rogue Valley said:

Trump has done everything he can to avoid implicating the Saudi crown prince in Khashoggi's killing. Today, the Senate could force him to act

Saudi/US journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed.



Trump, Kushner, and Pompeo have performed godawful semantical acrobatics to distance Saudi Crown Prince MBS from the brutal Khashoggi murder despite the depth of evidence implicating him.

This is quintessential Trump protecting another of his beloved brutal dictators. I'm not sure what compliance options the US Congress can employ here.

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Dittohead not! said:

Now that North America produces more oil than Saudi Arabia, why must we support that nation? How is it an ally? It is equally as backward as any of the Middle East nations.

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Grokmaster said:

Major hedge against Iran. Why should we NOT support them over the death of an anti-American islamist in Turkey?

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Dittohead not! said:

How are they any better than Iran?

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Grokmaster said:

They are not calling for DEATH to AMERICA and ISRAEL.

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